Cardiovascular Moonshot Team
Prof. Dr. Pieter Doevendans (Principical Investigator)
Profile
Prof. P.A.F.M. Doevendans was born in 1959 and studied Medicine at Leiden University. In 1997 he obtained his PhD with the thesis: Cardiac specific gene expression of the regulatory myosin light chains. He was subsequently appointed in May 2004 and followed his inaugural lecture on 15 April 2005, entitled: Vooruit naar de bas.
Prof. Dr. Marie-José Goumans (Principical Investigator)
Profile
Marie-José Goumans is professor at the department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Leiden UMC. She did her PhD in cardiovascular development at the Hubrecht Laboratory, investigating the role of TGFβ in cardiovascular development, and received her PhD in 1999 from the same university with a thesis entitled: Functional analysis of TGFβ signalling in early mouse development. Currently the lab of Dr Goumans studies how TGFβ is involved in proper development of the heart and vasculature, but at the same time, deregulation of the pathway, either too much or too little, causes congenital heart disease, vascular malformation and cardiac fibrosis. Furthermore, the group is studying cardiac progenitor cells and epicardial derived cells during development and disease and as a potential source for heart regeneration.
Prof. Dr. Carlijn V.C. Bouten (Principical Investigator)
Profile
Carlijn Bouten is professor of Cell-Matrix Interactions at the department Biomedical Engineering of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). She was trained in functional anatomy and biomechanics, as well as exercise physiology, at the department of Human Movement Sciences, VU Amsterdam, and obtained her PhD degree in 1995 from the TU/e. She performed postdoctoral research at the Université Laval (Quebec), University of London, and Eindhoven University of Technology. In 1998 she became assistant professor in Cellular Biomechanics in the department of Mechanical Engineering, TU/e, and in 2002 she became associate professor of Tissue Engineering in the department of Biomedical Engineering, TU/e. Her research concentrates on new engineering approaches to regenerate the tissues of the cardiovascular system. A particular example is the development of a synthetic, bio-degradable heart valve prosthesis that ‘seduces’ the body to create a new, living heart valve at the site of implantation. The research is performed in close collaboration with material scientists, life scientists and clinicians, and mainly executed within public-private partnerships. She is recipient of the prestigious Aspasia (2002) and VICI (2003) career development awards of the Dutch National Science Foundation and theme-leader ‘Regenerative Medicine’ of the strategic area Health at TU/e.
Dr. B.M.E Mees studied medicine at LUMC in Leiden and completed his training as General and Vascular Surgeon at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. He subsequently spent almost three years in Melbourne, Australia, to further specialize in Endovascular Surgery. Since May 2014 he is a consultant Vascular & Endovascular Surgeon in the department of Vascular Surgery at MUMC+ in Maastricht and UniKlinik Aachen, Germany. His clinical area of interest is the (endovascular) treatment of (complex) aortic disease and peripheral arterial disease. He is the research coordinator of the department of Vascular Surgery and has obtained a PhD in Vascular Biology from Erasmus MC, INSERM (U689, Paris) and Max-Planck Institute (Bad Nauheim, Germany). His main research focus areas are vascular biology, tissue engineering and innovative endovascular techniques. He is the inventor of the MAZE Box, a novel hands-on simulator for Endovascular Surgery and tutor for Vascular International. Dr. Mees is examiner of the UEMS FEBVS examination since 2017. He is organizer of the I-MEET congress and co-director of the European Vascular Course.
